COLUMN: SQ 756 — the health care vote we didn't have

Editor’s note: James Corley is a member of The Daily’s editorial board and disagreed with the consensus opinion on State Question 756. He wanted to voice his dissenting opinion in a column.

Health care is a privilege, not a right.

Total transparency: My dad is a doctor at a private hospital, and I am covered under his private insurance plan. But once I’m out from under it, I’ll be a poor journalist with expensive health care. So I’m considering my own future, too.

State Question 756 is our chance to voice our grievances about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

I don’t remember getting to vote on this health care plan, nor do I remember Oklahoma ratifying it.

Though SQ 756 will not overturn the health care act, it’s our chance — and our right — to let our lack of support for the flawed system be known.

My problems with the health care act run deep. I don’t want insurance that’s so incredibly dumbed down that it is spread thin.

And though I want health care to be more affordable, I don’t think the privileged should be required to pay more so those in hardship can get it.

This “reverse Robin Hood,” rich-Washington-takes-from-the-not-Washington-rich-to-give-to-the-poor mind-set is very disagreeable. Why should citizens lose their right to purchase Medicare Premium Plus insurance — yes, some Americans will actually lose coverage — so that others are required by law to buy insurance?

Although I completely agree our current health care system needs some changes, the problem with the new system is that it is a major overhaul. Rather than keeping the things that are working, it’s more of a slash-and-burn approach. There are some aspects of the current health care system that can be improved while preserving what is already working.

We want to provide the best health care we can to as many people as we can based on what we can afford. To create a system that we know we cannot afford is not the right kind of change.

Are there money trees growing on the White House lawn? I want to know how this will be funded.

How long will this system work before it becomes another failing government program like Social Security? I don’t want a system doomed from the start that will leave my future grandchildren without coverage like I’m doomed to get no retirement money from Social Security.

SQ 756 is essentially our “vote” on the health care act, because the federal government passed this on through without our input. I want change, but I want the right kind of change. Settling for a third-rate plan is the wrong way to get a first-rate solution.

— James Corley, journalism senior

James Corley

James is a former staff member of The Oklahoma Daily who worked as Sports Reporter, Sports Editor, Night Editor, Sports Reporter, Inside the Huddle Editor, Managing Editor and Sports Reporter.